Things I've seen in Normal entries

I’ve been under the weather; full disclosure? For a few weeks now, but it’s not all the time. I know under the weather covers a multitude of slimy things from Ailin’, doing poorly to a hitch in the getalong. I’ve just had periods of bad congestion, poor attitude, aches and pains, hot and cold, sniffling … and, I suppose whining. This paragraph isn’t meant to be about whining. This paragraph is an excuse for watching a lot of TV.

I’ve been watching a lot of TV, mostly American, about half and half current, some British, more currently than not. One general difference is that the writing tends to be better on British TV. I’m not convinced that the British have better writers, I think TV writers have very little autonomy. I think they have to stay inside the box that producers and advertisers believe appeals to the demographic. I’m not saying the American audiences are a dumber demographic, but, have you ever heard a case being made for how an American got smarter watching TV?

Other general things; people on TV are prettier than the average. Some of them can even act better than average. Although many beloved characters are morally ambigious they are within the framework of the puritan ethic, which is painted with broad strokes on TV. Hmmm, hard to give a specific example, my TV watching has the attention span of … my demographic. But if a good guy does a bad thing, he or she is either Justified (still remorseful, but justified), repetent and over compensates, or did it for the greater good. It gives one the impression that one is being preached to. Even something like breaking bad, the anti-hero has cancer, protects his family, only fucks with bad guys and for at least the first few seasons, his conscious is disturbed. I think the reason it was so popular is that if you weren’t looking for it, it seemed like an anti-hero that broke the puritan formula.

I had a bunch of best buy rewards built up and there was a sale so I ordered the full four seasons of Hero’s; I remember liking it. Huh. No foreshadowing, I still kind of like it, and it’s not as dated as I’d imagine it would be though the first season was over a decade ago. The voice over did a lot of moralizing. The voice over managed to get global warming in often as one of the ways we were all going to hell in a handbasket. A popular prime time TV show over a decade old that did a lot of preaching about the nature of mankind citing global warming as a destined apocalypse. Of course the good guys and bad guys with super-powers fought everything but global warming, just a perspective check.

People on TV are prettier, except on reality TV, but, even there, they typecast and edit out, I assume, ugly days. On non real TV, everyone wakes up groomed, in clean PJ’s and make up (granted everyone needs make up for the lights, but I can’t take a cat nap without my hair having a hair party). I don’t really watch reality TV, in fact since the last time I lived with Sunny, let’s call it 2010, I’ve watched zero reality TV, but I catch the occasional commercial for it.

Besides whining and watching TV, I’ve been writing. Oddly not to post anywhere. I’m only writing this to post because I have an online diary and I feel compelled to demonstrate that I’m still corporeal, mostly. It’s not because what I’ve been writing is too good or too bad to post, it’s not even because knowing I’m not going to post gives me certain liberties. I don’t know why exactly. I’ve been writing because I feel I’ve let it slip and of all my habits good and bad it’s the one I want most to keep.

Ok, that’s it. Be nice. And I’m spent.